00:01the world of cyberpunk 2077 is full of
00:07they are everywhere and they are a
00:09symptom of what's wrong with the world
00:12in night city where the game takes place
00:14corporations have been completely
00:16deregulated and whatever government
00:18remains is a thinly veiled figurehead
00:20for corporate interests
00:22there's no social support in night City
00:24no welfare no workers unions and
00:28basically no laws keeping corporations
00:30from doing whatever they want in the
00:34the ads all over the city are pervasive
00:36there's almost no escape from them
00:39you can try to get away from them by
00:41going to the outskirts of the city
00:43but even then the advertisements Loom
00:47I give a lot of credit to the developers
00:49of this game for how many there are
00:51I've spent well over a hundred hours in
00:53this city and I still occasionally come
00:55across ads I've never seen
01:00these ads exemplify a marketing
01:02philosophy that I will call evocative
01:07the corporations of cyberpunk's world
01:09don't care what they have to depict to
01:11grab your attention as long as you look
01:13at their ad they win
01:16and his ants become more salacious for
01:19there develops an arms race of who can
01:21be the most shocking the loudest the
01:25most sexual the most disgusting
01:30in a city full of cars and pedestrians
01:33this is an explicitly neglectful
01:35marketing strategy to the safety of the
01:38the ads as an extension of the
01:40corporations make this city more
01:42dangerous to live in
01:44all in the pursuit of stealing your most
01:46precious resource your time
01:48and of course your second most precious
01:52the uncomfortable truth about a lot of
01:54these ads is that they are evocative
01:57I like looking at this image something
02:00about the colors is hypnotizing
02:03this ad here mesmerizes me
02:05I have no idea what they're selling but
02:08something about a silver indestructible
02:10woman sitting on a flaming wreckage like
02:12it was a lounge chair makes me feel
02:16the high fashion ads are some of my
02:18favorites and have some of the most
02:22these ads are often silly colorful and
02:26some are opulent and beautiful and do a
02:29great job of contrasting against the
02:31kind of life that most of the people
02:33looking at these ads are living
02:36there's a lot of good art here
02:38they add a lot to the World building of
02:43I find a part of Myself revolted by them
02:48not because of their content but because
02:50they are so sickeningly familiar
03:00Barbecue's best Fair eight
03:05Sophia you stop coming to the cafe
03:08your house explodes don't have your
03:11house explode get rid of cable Lisa
03:17he hates advertisements and if you don't
03:21not just because they're annoying and
03:23they are but because advertisements are
03:25Insidious by their nature
03:28an advertisement inherently has an
03:30inverse relationship to your best
03:33you living a Content life is a threat to
03:37vertisements rely on you having a
03:41and if you don't have a deficiency one
03:43will gladly be provided to you
03:46your life in some way has to be lacking
03:49for the advertisement to be able to sell
03:51you a solution that you can spend your
03:56are even more effective for an ad is the
03:59idea that your whole life is substandard
04:02that's why modern advertisements often
04:04don't sell you a product they sell you a
04:07lifestyle an image an attitude
04:10they sell you on the idea that there is
04:12a way of life that is better than yours
04:14and by spending money you can open the
04:17door to that way of life
04:19it's no wonder that outside the world of
04:22advertising corporations do everything
04:24in their power to lower your quality of
04:27ads have no power if you are safe
04:29healthy free and educated
04:33at least in cyberpunk 2077 the ads
04:36aren't actually there to sell me some
04:38soft drink or a synthetic beef or a
04:42the ads in this world prey on the people
04:46but to me as an actual player and
04:48purchaser of the game these
04:50advertisements add value the city's ads
04:52show you places that you can visit and
04:54products you can actually buy this
04:57billboard for Lizzy's nightclub is
04:58advertising a real nightclub you can go
05:04most of the food products advertised can
05:06actually be bought and used as well the
05:09same is true of the weapon ads
05:12it's not just the content of the ads in
05:14night City that add to the World
05:15building it's also the form these ads
05:19there are so many different versions of
05:21the same ad for the same product
05:24with different aspect ratios depending
05:26on where the ad is meant to be displayed
05:28or animated versions of the ad versus
05:31static versions vertical versus
05:33horizontal orientations of the ad you
05:36get a sense of an ad campaign much in
05:38the way you see many different versions
05:40of the same ad in real life
05:42as an ad Creator you have to create a
05:45package for your client
05:47ad has to work on mobile
05:49computer screens as well as TV screens
05:52and billboards it has to have a long
05:54version to be displayed on daytime TV
05:56and a short version for YouTube it has
05:59to have a print version for magazines in
06:02an audio version for podcast networks or
06:06the developers of cyberpunk seem to
06:08understand that process and as a result
06:10it feels like a more well-rounded
06:12commentary on Advertising
06:16I also like how there are places in
06:18night city where the ads reflect the
06:19State of Affairs in the area
06:22Pacifica a part of the city that has a
06:24mostly black population has been
06:26entirely abandoned by the corporations
06:28and the government alike and you can see
06:30this abandonment and how the ads have
06:32gone into complete disrepair
06:35unlike the ad placements in richer wider
06:40the implementation of advertisements in
06:42this game makes the world deeper more
06:45believable more colorful and more
06:51in 1914 Woodrow Wilson created the
06:55Federal Trade Commission and in 1934
06:58Franklin D Roosevelt created the Federal
07:00Communications Commission
07:02these are the governmental regulatory
07:04bodies in America that have some
07:06jurisdiction over advertisements since
07:08their creation ad regulations have made
07:11real-life advertisements less
07:13irresponsible over time
07:15but even so ads still only serve to take
07:21they are leeches on society and there
07:24are leeches on your psyche
07:26at best advertisements fill your head
07:28with lies trash imagery and slogans that
07:31can stain your head rent free for
07:36worst they succeed in making you feel
07:38less than waste your time eat your money
07:41and in the case of military
07:43advertisements it's not for everyone but
07:46if you want to learn and make big
07:47decisions start with this one decide to
07:50leave as an army officer they validate
07:53the most destructive worldviews
07:57cyberpunk has these kinds of altruistic
08:01but they could never be as nauseating as
08:05why do we allow this
08:07aren't there any ways to stop this kind
08:12there are multiple ratings boards for
08:14video and radio content the MPAA rates
08:18movies AC Nielsen rates TV and radio and
08:23the ESRB rates video games
08:25collectively these organizations look at
08:28movies TV shows and video games and
08:30decide whether they should be rated
08:32Mature R-rated e for everyone PG-13 and
08:38but none of these independent
08:39organizations seem to have any
08:41jurisdiction over advertisements
08:43and even if they did I'm not sure that
08:45they would solve any problems because
08:47each of these organizations have their
08:49own issues and inconsistencies and
08:51biases when it comes to how they rate
08:54I looked at the websites of the FTC and
08:56the FCC and found that over the decades
08:59they have done a decent job at reining
09:01in some of the most dangerous
09:03advertising practices especially among
09:07it's why you don't see cigarette ads
09:18the delivers flavored 20 times a pack
09:22or soft drink ads like this
09:25outside of that you can actually file a
09:28complaint against an advertisement if
09:30you consider it too indecent or lewd
09:33you can file a complaint if you think
09:35the advertisement is untruthful
09:37but really only if the ad is
09:39specifically making a provably false
09:41claim about the product in the
09:45interestingly you can file a complaint
09:47if you find an ad too loud
09:49so there are some mechanisms in place to
09:52limit the egregiousness of ads
09:54but I suspect that these official
09:56complaints are rarely made and even more
10:01and from what I can tell these
10:03regulatory bodies don't have any laws to
10:05deal with what I think is a bigger
10:06problem with advertising
10:08the sheer quantity and inescapability of
10:14the inundation of advertisements that
10:16were subjected to creates a problem more
10:19harmful than the sum of its parts
10:21ads are a Corruption of our public
10:25they pervert any architecture that
10:27they're placed on they pollute the air
10:31and in the end Plastering ads all over
10:34any empty space available for rent means
10:37that corporations get to decide how our
10:40world looks and sounds
10:43as a society we've lost authorship of
10:45our cities and our digital spaces to
10:48entities that have the worst intentions
10:50and eventually even the quiet places in
10:54our minds are soiled with the Echoes of
10:56corporate sensibilities
10:58it's an internal and external perversion
11:05cyberpunk 2077 gets this
11:08the ads in the city speak to the fears
11:10of the people who live here many of the
11:14like that of an employee who is insecure
11:17about their productivity and needs an
11:19expensive cybernetic implant to keep up
11:21with their co-workers and hopefully
11:24or the story of a track athlete whose
11:26cybernetic implants are so bleeding edge
11:29they need their own pit crew
11:32the ads are a mirror for the people's
11:34desires fears and vulnerabilities
11:37and because the corporations have free
11:39reign to place the advertisements
11:41anywhere and everywhere
11:43the city itself becomes an advertisement
11:45rather than a functioning place
11:50there's a crucial difference between the
11:52ads of night City and the ads of the
11:56the world of cyberpunk is supposed to be
11:58a hyper capitalist dystopian nightmare
12:01but night City's ads are created by
12:04artists who understand marketing
12:07in real life ads are made by marketers
12:12for this reason when I play cyberpunk I
12:14Feel immersed by all the lights and
12:16sounds as they strengthen and enhance
12:18the fantasy of this world
12:21it's meant to be a cautionary tale of
12:23what happens when corporations are
12:27but in the end playing cyberpunk only
12:30reminds me where the real nightmare is
